Route

The road begins in the city centre just round the corner from His Majesty's Theatre, at the junction with Rosemouth Viaduct, and heads west along Skene Street. It carries straight on along Carden Place and becomes Queen's Road at the Queen's Roundabout. It crosses the A92 and continues through the suburbs, passing Hazlehead Park and the golf course, to meet the A944 at a roundabout. A filter lane bypassing the roundabout has been built for westbound traffic, however, becoming lane 1 of the A944.

The B9119 continues as a multiplex with the A944, which is dual-carriageway, for over 2 miles from here to Westhill. There's a roundabout at Kingswells, location of a busy park-and-ride facility. Part-time traffic lights operate at rush hour along here, as this is an extremely busy commuter route. The speed limit is also reduced to 40mph here. Immediately after the roundabout are traffic lights controlling access to and from the Prime Four business park. Shortly after this, a large roundabout providing access to the A90 (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route), and a number of local roads, is encountered. The next major junction is a set of traffic lights just outside Westhill (formerly a roundabout, remodelled in 2014), where the A944 and B9119 part ways again.

The B9119 takes the south route around Westhill and has been built up significantly in the past few years, with the creation of a new business park primarily serving the oil industry. Many roundabouts have sprung up, and the speed limit reduced to 50mph. We get a 60mph limit back when we meet the B979 at a roundabout east of Carnie. The stretch of road between here and Garlogie is generally pretty fast, with decent overtaking opportunities. The road is then dead-straight through the small village of Garlogie, which has recently seen its speed limit reduced to 40mph - not always obeyed by the locals! After Garlogie, the B9125 turns off towards Banchory, taking a large amount of traffic with it.

Echt is the next "major" settlement on the road, where the B977 is met at a crossroads (the B9119 having priority). After Echt, the journey is then a pleasant, if slightly twisty, journey through the Aberdeenshire countryside. The B993 is encountered outside Drumlassie, followed six miles later by the A980 between Alford and Banchory at a staggered crossroads where we have priority. Technically, one could argue that we multiplex with the A980 for all of about 50 yards here, before we continue on through more picturesque, sparsely-populated countryside.

Another six miles on, we arrive at Tarland, which has been signposted as our main destination all the way from Westhill. The road continues through the village and the B9094 heads off southeast to Aboyne. We then come across another staggered crossroads, this time with the A97, and we have to turn right and then left to carry on along the B9119. We're nearly at the end of the road now, and we pass by Loch Davan, before finally coming to a halt at a T-junction with the A93 at Cambus o' May.

History

The original section of the B9119

Originally, the length of road now known as the B9119 was the B985 along Skene Street and Carden Place in Aberdeen, then the A944 from the Albyn Place junction westwards to the present route of the A944. From there on the B974 took the route on to the A97 in Ordie, after which the road was unclassified.

By 1932 the A974 had taken on the entire route between the A944 and A97, then the latter road had been rerouted along what is now the B9119 on to the A93. The B9119 number had come into existence by then, taking on what was - and now is again - the A97 south to the A93 in Dinnet. In 1935 a new reinforced concrete Art Deco road bridge (now a Grade B listed building) was opened, crossing the Dee south Dinnet, and the B9119 was extended over it to meet the A973 (present B976 on the south bank of the river.

The A974 was downgraded in the 1970s and the B9119 was extended from Ordie east to Westhill and the A944. It then swapped routes with the A97 at its western end, with the half-mile section of ex-B9119 south of Dinnet becoming the B9158. These changes appear to have occurred after 1979, as the OS Routemaster map of that year still shows the older routings. Slightly confusingly, the short section of road across the bridge at Dinnet is still labelled B9119 on some maps, although it is currently signposted as "(B976)" in one direction and as "B9158" in the other, with no mention being made of the B9119 number.

More recently the A944 has been rerouted in Aberdeen and so the B9119 has been extended along part of that road's route and the entire length of the B985 to its present eastern terminus in the city centre.